When you eat whole blue crab in Maryland, chances are it's going to taste like Maryland crab, even if the crab doesn't come from Maryland. This is because Marylanders tend to prepare their crabs a certain way.

View full sizeTed Jackson, The Times-PicayuneGenaro Chavez steams a pot of crabs caught in Lake Pontchartrain at Jimmy Cantler's Riverside Inn in Annapolis, Md., on Wednesday. The extra large crabs go for $75 a dozen, $85 for the supers.

Unlike in Louisiana, where local crustaceans served whole are almost always boiled, whole blue crabs in Maryland are steamed. The difference between the preparations can be difficult to detect, particularly when you're busy probing beneath the carapace for lump meat.

The real distinguishing features of Maryland steamed crabs begin with the spice blends favored in the region. Old Bay makes the most famous local blend, which Marylanders apply to everything from crabs to pizza to Bloody Mary's. L.P. Steamers, a respected neighborhood crab house in Baltimore, favors J.O., another local spice company. ("It's less salty, and cheaper," according to a waitress there.)

These brands are to eastern Maryland what Tony Chachere's and Zatarain's are to southeast Louisiana, and while not all Maryland crab houses employ them, the locally manufactured seasonings fairly represent a flavor profile unique to the region. It's mellower than a typical Louisiana crab boil, with black pepper getting a heavier hand than cayenne, which allows subtler tingles of clove and allspice to ring through.

The housemade seasoning blend at Obrycki's is typical of the region but also unique to the restaurant itself, a classic Baltimore crab house with fine dining trimmings. The steamed-to-order crabs arrive pasted with clumps of damp, dark seasoning. They're served on brown butcher paper. Some diners request malt vinegar for dipping. The crack of wooden mallets smashing open claws provides a familiar soundtrack, and evidence of the crabs' popularity appears around the white bowls of the bathroom sinks, which are pocked with coarse grounds of black pepper.

Earlier this month, an Obrycki's waiter said they were serving a mixture of crabs from Maryland, Louisiana and the Carolinas, a common answer when the question of provenance is posed in Maryland crab houses, at least in this season of disrupted supply lines, thanks to BP's oil spill in the Gulf.

While the health of the Chesapeake raises questions about the staying power of culinary traditions deeply rooted in local seafood, there is little evidence of diminished pride in the regional folkways. National Bohemian -- Natty Boh, in local parlance -- is still marketed and embraced as the city's signature beer, even though it's now made by Miller Brewing Co. in North Carolina. Costas Inn is mentioned by many locals as one of the area's best crab houses, no matter that its "world famous crabs" need to be, according to its website, "flown in daily."

Chef Cindy Wolf has carved a path to the future for regional fine dining at Charleston, her excellent restaurant in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. In mid-September, the menu brimmed with local ingredients, including Maryland crab, which was formed into an ethereal cake set around kernels of sweet local corn and crisp haricot verts.

If the Maryland shore's culinary identity is tied to any one dish other than the steamed whole blue crab, it is certainly the crab cake. Arguably the most locally revered is found at Faidley Seafood, a historic, bare-bones restaurant and retailer inside Baltimore's Lexington Market. Faidley's lump crab cakes are spherical, golden brown and delicious, the kind of cakes so devoid of imperfections you suspect they were prepared by a chef equipped with a diamond cutter's eyeglass loupe.

When asked where the crab came from, a man behind Faidley's counter replied, "Maryland, chief!" Do you ever use crabs from anyplace else? "Of course," he replied. "The good Lord put blue crabs all the way down the coast, all the way to the Gulf."

Restaurant writer Brett Anderson can be reached at banderson@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3353. Comment and read more at nola.com/dining.